Post by jdfranchise on Jul 30, 2014 3:58:31 GMT -5
Dream Catcher
Boise, Idaho
June 21, 2014
10:13PM
Boise, Idaho
June 21, 2014
10:13PM
Just a few short moments before I go out to that ring against one of the greatest to ever lace up a pair of boots, Isaac “Drakz” Cray. His reputation is one that proceeds him, and tonight, I know that I will more than have my hands full with him. But here’s a little secret that the rest of the world’s going to find out. Isaac “Drakz” Cray will be in a hell of a fight tonight and he will know exactly who Josh Dean is. I don’t make guarantees anymore, because I know that our next breath isn’t a guaranteed occurrence. I know that when I walk through those curtains tonight, it isn’t a guarantee that I will walk back through them. Not because of anything that Isaac can do to me, but because I know that the only guarantee I know to be true is that eventually time runs out on a wrestler’s career.
I’ll be damned if it happens to me tonight, but I know it isn’t a guarantee. I made that mistake two and a half years ago and wound up with a broken neck for my troubles. Only God knows when that is gonna happen, and God is not Philip Schneider no matter how many times he says to make it easier to sleep at night. What’s sad is that he isn’t even here tonight, but apparently he has some slob doing his bidding for him. I wasn’t around for the Decaying Society, but I knew about the rep, and it’s the same damn thing that’s happened throughout wrestling’s entire existence.
It didn’t work then, I don’t know where in the hell he gets off thinking it’s gonna work this time around. If this is ole Philbo the heh’s Sargent of Arms, then I feel sorry for any pathetic sack of sh*t foot soldiers he’s gonna plan on putting in my path until our inevitable meeting. The longer I wait to get my hands on him, the worse I’m gonna break his ass down for being a b*tch.
I’m glad that I can think of multiple things at once and still be able to keep my thoughts together. I guess that’s another good reason to have noise cancelling headphones. Easier to drown out the cure for insomnia.
Sitting here in the guerrilla position backstage, waiting for Mr. Trashbag Chic to finish spreading the false gospel of Philbo the “Cursed” Emo, I have to chuckle because all I’m doing is just watching the clock on a monitor, counting the precious seconds that myself and the fans of Boise, Idaho are not going to get back. I just got warmed up, but I’m keeping loose in the event that the producer decides he’s been generous enough with air time and cuts this disheveled swine’s mic off. Then he can go crawl in a random trash bin to be carried off to the nearest landfill and dumped with the rest of yesterday’s trash.
Out of the farthest corner of my eye, I see Drakz approaching the guerilla position. He stops at a comfortable distance between us, which is fine by me, considering that we are going to be beat ten shades of sh*t out of each other as soon as this vagrant stops f*cking talking and ends this unwelcomed appearance, which resembles the cousin from out of town that smells like he’s been smoking too much heroin and hasn’t bathed for at least a year. I grab my hood and flip it over my head because I don’t look at an opponent before we go to the ring, and I certainly don’t plan on changing that up now, even if I’ve been in a little bit of a funk lately. It’s a mental thing I guess, because whether the guys in the back want to admit it or not, the eyes tell the man’s frame of mind. I don’t want anyone to see my eyes until I’m ready to engage them.
Straight ahead, I see Nikki coming toward the guerrilla area. She has a big smile on her face and that outfit is HOT! I turn and face her, keeping myself at an angle from Drakz. Taking off my headphones, I hear producers saying we’re in a commercial. Wonder if we have enough time to get it in before the match? I need to work up a good sweat. No, you pervs, Mommy and Daddy time is reserved for behind closed doors.
“How are you feeling?” She asks me, not knowing that my opponent is within earshot of us. It’s her first day on the job, so I’m not mad that she hasn’t learned every single person in WFWF’s name. Mainly, she’s concerned about my well-being given current events. “I’m good, but I’m sure I’ll feel much better once I get out there.” I respond while giving her a comforting gaze.
There’s a tap on my shoulder. Glancing over my left shoulder, I see that Daniel Knight is behind me, and it looks like he wants a comment or two.
“Hey, Josh. I was curious if you had any comment about Percy Jackson’s comments before the commercial?”
He looks at me expectedly, almost as if he assumed I even paid attention . “I’m sorry Daniel, but I wasn’t paying attention to the segment.” I state in a matter of fact tone. Poor guy, I kind of feel sad for him that a lot of the wrestlers on the roster treat him so badly, but I can’t comment on something that I couldn’t be bothered by at the moment because of my impending match. “I’ll tell ya what, I’ll have a comment for ya once my match is over and I take a second to actually pay attention to it.”
He nods his head at this new arrangement and I focus my attention back on Nikki. It has been wonderful having her and the boys on the road with me these past couple months, plus it has given me time to work with her on a daily basis on her in ring game. She’s getting good, fast, and I think fans and management alike are gonna be pleasantly surprised when she finally steps into the ring and competes. Tonight is just as important for her as it is for me, because now she gets to see what the elite level talent looks like up close and personally. My music begins to play, and Nikki glances over at me.
“It’s go time.” I tell her, flipping my hood back over my head and begin to take that long walk to the ring. “You ready?”
****
10:45PM
“Does that feel good, baby?”
Coming back through the curtain, I run my fingers through my hair. Nikki is by my side. We’re walking arm in arm while she uses her left arm to rub my right shoulder. Glad that it took the impact of that dive and not my head this time. One of the perks of having your wife on the road with you is the dual body massages that you give each other later on in the RV driving to the next town. Now how can you do that driving from city to city you ask? Easy, you pay a guy to drive and you put the kids in bed early. It isn’t always glamorous and believe me, we may not always feel like doing it, but I wouldn’t change it for the world. And with Nikki having an athletic background prior to signing her contract, she has been great at emphasizing with me after a tough loss.
As we walk through the backstage area of the arena, I’m not at all disappointed in my performance in the ring tonight. Given an opponent of Drakz’s caliber, I actually felt good and don’t consider it a letdown. For the first time since I came out of retirement, everything felt right inside those ropes. It wasn’t like my match with Brennan, where I relied on the fact that I stay in pretty good shape and my experience to beat a capable opponent. A mistake I’ll never make again, because it ended up costing me a victory at SuperBrawl.
“Josh, you performed great out there. You have nothing to be ashamed of because there was no loser out there tonight after a match like that.”, Nikki says to me as we walk towards the bus. “And you got Drakz’s respect out there. He doesn’t seem like he’s one to give endorsements easily.”
“I guess he really has turned over a different leaf.”, I respond, taking note of the brief conversation that Drakz and I had post match, reflecting on how my own injury changed my outlook on life and my attitude towards my career. “It’s funny how someone appreciates something when it’s gone.”
“I expected him to be kind of a jerk, but he surprised me by being nice after the match. You hear things backstage, so it was nice to be proven wrong because I’m sure it is only a matter of time before I’m proved right.”
“Drakz is a confident guy, and I won’t take that away from him. Confidence takes people a long way in this business.”, I state in a matter of fact tone. “But confidence has nothing to do with being smart enough to recognize when you and your opponent did something special in the ring.”
I found myself thinking about Philbo, and how it’s his own blindness that’s caused this problem that we have with each other. Taking my cellphone out of my pocket as we reach the bus, I see that the video has gone viral. Nikki climbs on the bus as I stand outside and help the chauffer load the bags in the bottom. The video plays on my phone, which causes me to pause and really pay attention.
“Because, Josh.. this fat bastard hanger on did something that you've never done. Something that no amount of hand shakes will accomplish.. And that's a WFWF Hall of Fame induction. And Josh.. Phil and myself got that induction for doing something that you know nothing about.. we got it by being entertaining.”
Perhaps I’ve missed the plot here, but I don’t quite understand what’s to be proud of having no residence to speak of, and I’m not sure that having a remedial grasp on the English vocabulary is entertaining, but whatever keeps him feeling relevant. The only point that he had in his diatribe was that he had a Hall of Fame ring from this company. One problem with that logic, however. That bit of bragging only works when a guy has been in the company for ten years and has nothing to show for it. If I wanted, I could simply mention winning a singles title in my short tenure with the company and beating a Hall of Famer in the process, something he never did. But that wouldn’t do either of us any good, now would it? I look out of my peripherals as I put the phone back into my pocket and see Daniel Knight approaching the bus.
“Oh sh*t Daniel, I totally forgot to give you a sound byte.” I say as I walk over to him.
“It’s ok, Josh.” He says to me, relieved that I didn’t just blow him off earlier. “I appreciate that you remembered. I feel bad for approaching you so close to your match with Drakz. I hope I didn’t throw you off your game any.”
“Nah, you’re fine. Drakz would’ve been tough for anyone to beat the way he performed tonight. But I think that’s really not why you’re here to talk to me.”
“Wow, you really do have a good memory.”, he says with a chuckle. “So I take it you’ve finally watched Percy Jackson’s segment where he addressed you?”
“Is that his name?”, I say rolling my eyes. “Gee, shows how important he is in the wide scope of WFWF anymore. But yeah I watched the segment back and it only told me one thing, that I have ole Philbo’s attention. But what’s interesting to me is how he lost his balls since I was last in this company, because the Phillip Schneider that I remember would never let someone do his talking for him. I addressed him personally when I had a problem with what he did, but I guess that shows the varying degrees of manhood between the two of us.”
“Do you think that this will lead to a clash at a major Pay Per View between the two of you?”
“God, I hope so.”
My reaction seemed to really surprise Daniel, as I can only assume a very select few people actually want to face Philbo.
I see a familiar face from my recent past walking by in the form of Dave Demento. In early 2011, I was under a no compete clause when my old company shut down. I met Dave at a show that I agreed to work commentary for, and that night, I was impressed by his resolve, his toughness, his determination as he worked in that ring. Tonight he came back and asserted himself as the man to stop Demon and Bishop’s little bromance. I had to admit that he had a lot of guts doing that, especially with seemingly no back up. We lock eyes as Daniel continues to talk. I nod my head at him and he responds in kind. Focus Josh, someone is talking to you.
“…I just can’t believe that you want to face him. A match with him has proven a death wish for someone’s career, and it’s very brave of you considering that you just came back from retirement due to injury.”
“Stranger things have happened in this business, Daniel.”, I say to him in hopes that he didn’t catch my being rude to him. “In reality, I can only go off what I’ve seen and witnessed, which isn’t much in the past seven years. I was too busy doing my own thing, but all I can say is that some people never change.”
I reach my hand out and pat him on the back. He’s been a real trooper in the pursuit of a little sound byte from me. But I’ve spent enough time talking to Daniel when my family are the only people I wish to see at this time.
*****
Twisted
July 16, 2014
Fayetteville, North Carolina
July 16, 2014
Fayetteville, North Carolina
"Hey Josh, you got a minute?"
Dave Demento had a rough night tonight, and due to the spike that he took to the head at the hands of The Final Revolution, he could see that this war that he waged on Demon and Bishop would require someone who wasn’t going to flake on him when the going got tough, so when he saw Josh Dean walking through the backstage area of the arena, he smiled and knew that he found a potential ally.
"Yeah, man. I was just on my way to get Nikki so we can grab some food." Josh says as he sees the welts on Demento's face. "Damn dude, you got worked over pretty good out there. You alright?"
"I'll be fine," replies Demento as he brings the ice back up to his face, "Things would've gone a lot smoother if my partner actually helped."
"Yeah. I saw that. Doesn't look like somebody was out to do you any favors.", Josh says as he motions for Demento to follow him. "Walk with me, let's talk. Nikki'll probably text me in a second to see if I'm in route."
"Yeah, sure man." Dave says as catches up to Josh,"I know we've both recently returned to this company, and we both want to prove that we are the best, but dammit Josh. I've got my head in a hole full of explosives and things aren't going to turn out well for me."
"Listen Dave, you know that I'm a pretty straight shooter, so you know I'm not gonna bullsh*t you.", Josh says as they turn the corner to the dressing rooms. "But, I gotta know what in the hell you were thinking trying to fight this battle alone? You've got to be smarter than that."
Demento lets out a deep sigh.
"I was once like them, wanting to take over the company by staging a Revolution. Didn't get far, but I had the same ideas as them." Dave kept the ice on his welts, "I thought I had their exact gameplan inside of my head before they had it, y'know?"
Josh nods his head.
"I've been there, so you don't need to sell me on how nice and pretty the package looks on the outside. But you know Demon as well I do, if not better. It's the same song and dance that happens in every wrestling company in the world." , Josh glances over to see Dave working on keeping the ice pack on his forehead. "Guys get a little bit of power, and they align themselves with whoever is the biggest threat to them. Problem is Bishop is too blind to see it and now he's buying into it."
"I've been there, back during the war of Demon and Pierce, I sided with Team Demon. Showed my loyalty, bought into it so much that I let Trace use me as his little bitch. Whenever he needed somebody to get beaten down, I was placed into a match." Demento now started unraveling his wirst tape, "And with Bishop, I've been in the same boat as him. With Solomon Crow, we were both followers. You start to stray away from the pack and you get beat on. I got beat on, as Bishop continued to drink the Kool-Aid that was given to him." , Demento had now turned to Josh again, "You got any tape by chance?"
"Yeah, I got some tape in the locker room. We'll grab it on the way."
"Okay, thanks man." Dave added as the icepack is now being held in his hand. "What I'm trying to get at Josh, is that these guys are beatable. Their Final Revolution is just a mirage. But if I'm going to go at this... I'm going to need somebody to watch my back. You can still keep your focus on Schneider, but if things get tough.. y'know?"
"Ya know, all ya had to do was ask. You could've came to me sooner." , Josh says as he opens the locker room door. "Sure, I've got my beef with ole Philbo, but it's not like I haven't sat and watched this garbage take place. You're a pretty standup guy, Dave, and it takes a lot of heart to come back from what happened to you." , he continues as he reaches in his duffel and tosses Dave the tape. "And even though you're built like a tank now, I couldn't live with myself knowing I could've done more to help."
Dave grabbed the tape and taped the icepack to his head, "Thanks a lot, man. I don't want to keep you and Nikki waiting any longer. I've got your back."
"Well sh*t man, are you hungry?" , Josh says as he pats Dave on the back. "Big dude such as yourself could use a nice meal and a couple beers after that."
Two men that have the best interests of a company that helped them build their names forming an understanding. The only difference is, they aren’t playing games with each other, or better yet the WFWF fan base. There will be no snickers and laughs behind the scenes of “Oh, I’m so much smarter than you hahahahaha!” at the fans’ expense, as it isn’t either man’s style to do such things.
*****
Residence of Josh and Nikki Dean
July 23, 2014
11:15 PM
July 23, 2014
11:15 PM
“I can’t help but think that someone overheard us talking.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, I mean that it’s interesting that Dave and I have a conversation about what’s going on in this company.” , I say to Nikki as we go in and out of our bathroom, preparing to turn in for the night. “Now all of a sudden, we’re booked in a match against each other.”
“Josh, that was a coincidence.” Nikki says to me as she pulls her hair up on her head in a loose bun. “Who could’ve known that you two would have agreed to have each other’s backs?”
“I don’t know, but something doesn’t seem right.”
“Well Mr. Conspiracy Theory, I’m really curious to hear what you really think about this.” , she says jokingly to lighten up my mood as I swish around some mouthwash, knowing full well that I’m not in great spirits right now. “It’s just a match.”
I spit out the mouthwash. “It’s more than just a match. This is an attempt to divide and conquer before we can ever get out the gates. Because what will end up happening is that Dave and I will go into this match and beat the piss out of each other, effectively putting a dent in the agreement. Everyone in the company knows that Demon has eyes and ears all over the place. And even though Lila runs day to day operations, Demon still has the influence around here.”
“If Lila is running day to day operations, couldn’t she just veto the match?”
She had a great point, but it is a little more complicated than just vetoing the match. If she denies the match, Demon can easily fire or suspend her for insubordination. It’s his only real power play since he has no control of what goes on during the show. This smells of Demon throwing his weight around.
“Maybe, but Demon still controls her contract, and that’s where it gets complicated.” , I say as I crawl into bed beside Nikki. “I know that Lila is on our side, but she still has to be careful. And that leaves me and Dave to go out there and fight. It’s not something I’m looking forward to.”
“Josh, it’s ok to be concerned because you like Dave, but wrestler’s wrestle.” , Nikki says to me as she turns over and puts her head on my chest. “No doubt when you and Dave go out there and wrestle, you will steal the show. That’s all you need to worry about, because I am almost positive that is what Dave is worrying about.”
“This just smells of someone pulling a fast one.” , I say as I rub her head and watch as he eyes begin to close. “Dave is one of the few people in this business that I would consider a friend and it’s because he is a straight up kind of guy. But you are right, we are professionals…”
“And professionals go out there and do their jobs.”
“Right.”
“Josh, if Dave cares about your friendship as much as you do, then it should not matter what happens at the show. You guys will still be friends and drink a couple beers afterwards” , she says as I get comfortable with my head on the pillow. I kiss her on the head. “But if you don’t get some sleep, you are not going to compete to your best abilities.”
That’s the mother coming out in her, but she is right. Dave and I are friends, and it isn’t like I haven’t done this before. The only difference is that the last friend I had to fight wasn’t my friend when I fought him. Will Dave’s and my agreement still last after this match? Oy, vey, I’m not going to sleep well tonight with so much sh*t on my mind.